Christmas 2015 – Angels & Shepherds

Christmas favourites and seasonal surprises – unwrap some surprising presents from the Torbay Singers in a celebration of Christmas in Georgian England and Germany. Alongside enduring seasonal favourites from Handel and Bach, we celebrate a forgotten treasury of carols and anthems from English parish churches in an age when music was rousing and occasionally raucous! Excerpts from Handel’s “Messiah” will rub shoulders with exuberant versions of the same words composed by provincial singing teachers and gentlemen amateurs now undeservedly forgotten. Familiar carols turn up in unexpected costumes: were the shepherds really watching their flocks on Ilkley Moor? Even Bach pulls out a surprise in his Christmas cantata “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”, which recycles words and music from his B minor Mass.

Torbay Singers with soloists and chamber orchestraconducted by Tina Guthrie